MLB Rumors: Ideal NY Mets trade target, Jordan Montgomery price, Ryan Pressly

The MLB Winter Meetings officially start on Monday, but teams have been incredibly active over the weekend even without Juan Soto making up his *expletive* mind. MLB rumors are invading social media and distracting us from Sundays with family. Plenty of juiciness presented itself on Sunday, including an ideal trade target for the New York Mets reportedly being in the stage of “willing to listen to offers for.” The man in question is Luis Castillo.

Signed for three more seasons at a rate of $24.15 million per year (plus a vesting option for a fourth year), he’s a perceived bargain when we look at what equal or lesser pitchers are getting paid. Castillo has been a consistent and mostly healthy pitcher throughout his career. Since 2018, he has logged 150+ innings every year with 2020 being the exception. He still pitched what equated to a full year in the shortened campaign.

Prying Castillo away from the Seattle Mariners will take more than offering to eat the remainder of his salary. Castillo remains one of the better starting pitchers in the American League with a pedigree to continue down the same path in the future. He shouldn’t cost quite as much as some other pitchers mentioned in MLB rumors, namely Garrett Crochet, in large part because of the money involved. As highly-prized as Crochet is, Castillo seems like a much surer bet to have a good year in 2025 and beyond.

Jordan Montgomery isn’t coming to the Mets for just some salary relief

Despite pitching costing almost as much as a dozen eggs, the Chicago Cubs were reluctant to trade Cody Bellinger for Jordan Montgomery. While both players are in the realm of possibility for the Mets, Bellinger as a first base alternative to Pete Alonso, the fact that the Cubs and Arizona Diamondbacks discussed such a proposal gives us some idea of the market. It was the Cubs who ultimately declined this proposal although it’s not known if it was a one-for-one deal and how much, if any, financials were involved.

Montgomery is viewed as a bounceback candidate the Diamondbacks need to move. If the Diamondbacks are looking to get a player of Bellinger’s caliber in return, it’s going to take more than some middling Mets prospects to bring him to Queens.

Ryan Pressly could be a guy to put in front of Edwin Diaz in the bullpen

The Mets haven’t done anything significant to improve their bullpen yet—unless of course you believe Clay Holmes will be a disaster as a starting pitcher and can fall back to being a reliever. MLB rumors have named Ryan Pressly as a likely trade piece for the Houston Astros. The 35-year-old going on 36 next week has a $14 million salary for the coming year. It’s quite a lot for a guy who lost his closer spot with Houston.

Pressly’s stay with the Astros has been memorable and has included a pair of All-Star selections and over 100 saves. We’ve seen the Mets add plenty of former Milwaukee Brewers and New York Yankees. What about Minnesota Twins? Let’s not forget how the Mets, at least in the past, would do this with ex-Twins players because of the connection with pitching coach Jeremy Hefner. Hefner would know Pressly from those earlier days of his career. While a leap to assume he has maintained any sort of relationship, it could be one more reason to think of him as a trade target for New York. Based on how David Stearns has spend previously on the bullpen, the Astros would have to pick up a portion of the salary for any sort of trade to commence.